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  • #16
    We have had the same issue with over 8 HD wave inverters, at multiple locations. We have error codes 181 and 183 internal errors. Solaredge tells us it is our grid that is causing the issue. We have had to replace 8 inverters under warranty. Not to mention we also have had 9 optimizers failure. All of this has happened in under 2 years.

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    • #17
      Originally posted by ButchDeal View Post

      are the serial numbers close?

      There is a common element between the two inverters..... The installer..
      That was a cheap shot.
      There seems to be a lot of animosity on here towards DIY installers why is that?
      I read a lot about installers that have gone out of business, or are too busy to honor their warranty for their customers, who else is going to take care of it except the homeowner? it's not like you can just throw it in your car and take it to the closest shop for repairs like you would a non-functioning computer system.

      DIY installs may not always be a good choice but sometimes they're the only logical choice, since 85% of installers are out of business within five years what's up with that?
      Those who do, do it!

      Comment


      • #18
        Originally posted by motorcyclemikie View Post

        That was a cheap shot.
        There seems to be a lot of animosity on here towards DIY installers why is that?
        Not a cheap shot at all and not directed at DIY directly either.

        This would be the same with DIY or installers. My experience has been that when we have multiple failures of optimizers/inverters, it was the installer making install and/or handling mistakes.


        OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

        Comment


        • #19
          Originally posted by ButchDeal View Post

          Not a cheap shot at all and not directed at DIY directly either.

          This would be the same with DIY or installers. My experience has been that when we have multiple failures of optimizers/inverters, it was the installer making install and/or handling mistakes.

          I have noticed that the failures also can be affected by the date of manufacture (on the optimizers )and also where they are produced. solaredge sells their optimizers with various upgrades that they label as a new series and not a new model number.

          I recently purchased a set of optimizers for my upcoming system build. I chose European built optimizers as opposed to chinese-built and I chose new ones with a relatively current build date. hopefully this will minimize failures, I will have to let you know at some later date.

          I also understand that getting warranties for solaredge products is a little bit involved.



          So, do the turnkey buyers get the capability of choosing parts with a better survival rate, or are they at the mercy of their installers in their knowledge of the products?
          I believe that the knowledge I have gained through the process of being a DIY 'er gives me an advantage over a "Larry with a ladder" type of bang it out installation.
          Last edited by motorcyclemikie; 02-20-2019, 05:53 PM.
          Those who do, do it!

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          • #20
            We just replaced all the Powerboxes (now they are called Optimizers) at an 8 year old Solar Edge site. The MC4 connectors were falling apart. Of course this is in Arizona dry climate but all the connectors were in the shade underneath the PV panels. I've never seen this happen to solar connectors and chalk it up to bad design in their choice of connector manufacturer. SolarEdge replaced all of them under warranty and even paid us to do the service, but I just can't tolerate this kind of problem and now avoid using this brand.
            BSEE, R11, NABCEP, Chevy BoltEV, >3000kW installed

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            • #21
              Granted the "HD" line is a newer product. But it seems like this series has had / is having a lot more hardware / firmware / configuration related issues than the older A'series. Simultaneously it's strange to me that their big new upgrade is to remove the LCD diagnostic and configuration panel on the new models.

              Still no Wifi internet connectivity in the USA
              Removal of diagnostic display (what does this save $100?)
              Lower reliability?
              Reduced inverter capacity for some nameplates
              Units run very hot given no fans. Perhaps this will make them "more reliable" But I think not. Fan failures are easily diagnosed and replaced. Cooked electronics not so much.

              Cheaper, faster, better. -- pick 2.

              Comment


              • #22
                Originally posted by JSchnee21 View Post
                Granted the "HD" line is a newer product. But it seems like this series has had / is having a lot more hardware / firmware / configuration related issues than the older A'series. Simultaneously it's strange to me that their big new upgrade is to remove the LCD diagnostic and configuration panel on the new models.

                Still no Wifi internet connectivity in the USA
                Removal of diagnostic display (what does this save $100?)
                Lower reliability?
                Reduced inverter capacity for some nameplates
                Units run very hot given no fans. Perhaps this will make them "more reliable" But I think not. Fan failures are easily diagnosed and replaced. Cooked electronics not so much.

                Cheaper, faster, better. -- pick 2.

                at 99% efficiency the inverters do no run very hot. many of the A series inverters didn't have fans either.

                The removal of the LCD screen is because it was less than useful and not rated for cold environments. By removing it the system is rated for much colder environments commonly found in northern US and Canada as well as other countries.

                The new inverters do have WiFi used for setup as well as with the addition of an antenna for remote communication/monitoring.

                Not sure what you mean by reduced inverter capacity as the new HDwave SetApp inverters are the same spec as the old HDWave with LCD.
                OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by JSchnee21 View Post
                  Granted the "HD" line is a newer product. But it seems like this series has had / is having a lot more hardware / firmware / configuration related issues than the older A'series.
                  I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that a casual reader of this forum may have noticed what Johnathan writes of here and similar to what I think I've seen: A lot of posts dealing with these types of issues and what's perhaps a disproportionate number of users/owners of SolarEdge products being less than happy with them.

                  I've also noticed that Butch usually has a comment or two in response to negative posts about SolarEdge products.

                  Butch: I appreciate strong and well informed opinions and I respect yours, but from where I sit, you're comments about SolarEdge stuff look almost uniformly exculpatory.

                  Maybe it's because SolarEdge has a large and what looks to be growing market share that causing it. Or, maybe a lot of SolarEdge users are uninformed (which I wouldn't doubt or dispute). But I'd suggest that SolarEdge users are no more uninformed than other PV newbies. With that, I don't seem to see the same number of posts that relate problems with other inverter systems than with SolarEdge stuff although, and IMO only, Enphase with it's problems has come close in the past.

                  Just opinion.















                  /from soa CASUAL OBSERVAOR

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by J.P.M. View Post
                    Maybe it's because SolarEdge has a large and what looks to be growing market share that causing it. Or, maybe a lot of SolarEdge users are uninformed (which I wouldn't doubt or dispute). But I'd suggest that SolarEdge users are no more uninformed than other PV newbies. With that, I don't seem to see the same number of posts that relate problems with other inverter systems than with SolarEdge stuff although, and IMO only, Enphase with it's problems has come close in the past.
                    I like solar edge products and I believe they fit my application well. they're supposed strength of panel monitoring, to me seems like a real positive strength although it looks from user comments that it in fact is poorly supported (I know from personal experience I have had their customer support spin) with lots of undocumented error codes and other unexplained failures. I have read a lot of the installers do not give the customers the full support tools because it confuses the customer, and possibly it takes their time to explain to the customer.

                    I believe that solaredge purposely keeps the spin on this business to benefit financially from the confusion that they also cause. they try not to get too technical on the use of their products. it's easy to tell by reading their product specifications that they were written by a tech writer with little knowledge or experience, but most likely it is to perpetuate the spin of their business.

                    I also expect to get "butched at" if I mentioned something adverse about solar edge products I really don't care I'm in it for me, but I really do appreciate his vast knowledge, and he is right A lot of the time.

                    Those who do, do it!

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      I like my SolarEdge system as well -- but, knock on wood, I've not had a single issue with it. I wasn't aware that not all of the A-series had fans, nor had I considered that the LCD might not tolerate extreme cold -- thanks Butch! It looked more like "cutting corners" to me. How will a novice / ignorant homeowner ever begin to troubleshoot their system if it has no display? Similarly, not all installers give customers access (or sufficient access) to the Web portal.

                      I think we see a lot of discussion about SE here on the board because I suspect their market share in the United States has been rapidly expanding. Given rapid shutdown requirements, historical quality issues and recent availability issues with Enphase, I'd wager than SE is commanding a large percentage of US residential installs these days. Seriously, when was the last time there was any serious discussion on this board about OTHER panel level shutdown options.

                      Given the unfortunate turnover of installers in the residential PV market, I think it behooves SE to take more of a leadership role in supporting and assisting their end users. This nonsense about installers having to give end users access to their data is nonsense. SE corporate should force installers to register the systems correctly (and verify that they do) and then the full suite of capabilities (many read only for the end user) should be available to end users, installers, and corporate in the web portal. This way everyone would be on the same page.

                      My comment about reduced inverter capacity was regarding the A-Series (namely the 7600) versus the HD-Series. The HD series only supports the name plate rating. Some models of the older A-series had more generous inverter capabilities than the nameplate suggested.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Originally posted by motorcyclemikie View Post

                        I like solar edge products and I believe they fit my application well. they're supposed strength of panel monitoring, to me seems like a real positive strength although it looks from user comments that it in fact is poorly supported (I know from personal experience I have had their customer support spin) with lots of undocumented error codes and other unexplained failures. I have read a lot of the installers do not give the customers the full support tools because it confuses the customer, and possibly it takes their time to explain to the customer.

                        I believe that solaredge purposely keeps the spin on this business to benefit financially from the confusion that they also cause. they try not to get too technical on the use of their products. it's easy to tell by reading their product specifications that they were written by a tech writer with little knowledge or experience, but most likely it is to perpetuate the spin of their business.

                        I also expect to get "butched at" if I mentioned something adverse about solar edge products I really don't care I'm in it for me, but I really do appreciate his vast knowledge, and he is right A lot of the time.
                        FWIW, I've got a lot of respect for Butch's opinions and experience and I don't doubt his veracity for one second. I pay a lot of attention to what he writes and I take what he writes as from someone with experience and I take his stuff seriously.

                        But also, and with no negative or personal inference intended or implied, I also take it as being from someone with skin in the game, directly or indirectly.

                        Fair or not, perception is often everything and my perception is that his explanations of some perceived shortcoming of some aspect(s) of some SolarEdge product(s) most often comes off as more defensive than explanatory, almost as the resident apologist for SolarEdge.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Originally posted by J.P.M. View Post
                          Butch: I appreciate strong and well informed opinions and I respect yours, but from where I sit, you're comments about SolarEdge stuff look almost uniformly exculpatory.

                          Maybe it's because SolarEdge has a large and what looks to be growing market share that causing it. Or, maybe a lot of SolarEdge users are uninformed (which I wouldn't doubt or dispute). But I'd suggest that SolarEdge users are no more uninformed than other PV newbies. With that, I don't seem to see the same number of posts that relate problems with other inverter systems than with SolarEdge stuff although, and IMO only, Enphase with it's problems has come close in the past.
                          I would suggest that it is a combination of a few things:

                          SolarEdge has in the past few years grown to the largest residential inverter sales in the US (for several reasons not least of which being the rapid shutdown requirements).
                          SolarEdge has terrific and free monitoring which can be good and bad
                          Confusion (or uninformed as JPM put it) of homeowners around billing, and how solar generally works combined with the large amount of data from monitoring

                          I have seen MANY non-solaredge sites with no or poor monitoring that are working in a diminished capacity and the homeowners being just oblivious to the situation.

                          There were clearly some roll out issues with the new HDWaves and firmware upgrade procedures with them. I have a tech background and am VERY familiar with computers etc but many installers are not and are not comfortable with even connecting inverters (of any brand) to ethernet, setting up online monitoring (I know it is trivial but still), or upgrading firmware (yes it can be done remotely but only if there connection is good), etc. etc. We dealt with many installers that like other inverters and it comes down to when dealing with them, that the problem was their phobias around the computer side of what they viewed as high tech. When I and my staff did the work for them and explained they just needed to record on a piece of cardboard the optimizer locations, they all of a sudden where great with solarEdge and/or enphase (yes we installed some enphase too
                          OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Originally posted by motorcyclemikie View Post
                            I like solar edge products and I believe they fit my application well. they're supposed strength of panel monitoring, to me seems like a real positive strength although it looks from user comments that it in fact is poorly supported (I know from personal experience I have had their customer support spin) with lots of undocumented error codes and other unexplained failures. I have read a lot of the installers do not give the customers the full support tools because it confuses the customer, and possibly it takes their time to explain to the customer.

                            I believe that solaredge purposely keeps the spin on this business to benefit financially from the confusion that they also cause. they try not to get too technical on the use of their products. it's easy to tell by reading their product specifications that they were written by a tech writer with little knowledge or experience, but most likely it is to perpetuate the spin of their business.

                            I also expect to get "butched at" if I mentioned something adverse about solar edge products I really don't care I'm in it for me, but I really do appreciate his vast knowledge, and he is right A lot of the time.
                            I think the installers doesn't give the full monitoring to the customers because it confuses the installers when customers call.
                            Also SolarEdge is clearly NOT set up to deal with homeowners directly and they expect the installers to handle that, thus the short fall here.
                            Some Installers don't want to get educated on the product and the manufacturer doesn't have direct support geared to end users. There is a market here for some other companies to do the work.

                            Few of the inverter manufacturers are set up for direct customer support.
                            But like there are companies that handle other appliances for your home regionally when you call about your fridge or washing machine, they send out general home appliance support and the call goes to a third party for support not the manufacturer (for most manufacturers this is how it works).
                            OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Originally posted by JSchnee21 View Post
                              I like my SolarEdge system as well -- but, knock on wood, I've not had a single issue with it. I wasn't aware that not all of the A-series had fans, nor had I considered that the LCD might not tolerate extreme cold -- thanks Butch! It looked more like "cutting corners" to me. How will a novice / ignorant homeowner ever begin to troubleshoot their system if it has no display? Similarly, not all installers give customers access (or sufficient access) to the Web portal.

                              I think we see a lot of discussion about SE here on the board because I suspect their market share in the United States has been rapidly expanding. Given rapid shutdown requirements, historical quality issues and recent availability issues with Enphase, I'd wager than SE is commanding a large percentage of US residential installs these days. Seriously, when was the last time there was any serious discussion on this board about OTHER panel level shutdown options.

                              Given the unfortunate turnover of installers in the residential PV market, I think it behooves SE to take more of a leadership role in supporting and assisting their end users. This nonsense about installers having to give end users access to their data is nonsense. SE corporate should force installers to register the systems correctly (and verify that they do) and then the full suite of capabilities (many read only for the end user) should be available to end users, installers, and corporate in the web portal. This way everyone would be on the same page.

                              My comment about reduced inverter capacity was regarding the A-Series (namely the 7600) versus the HD-Series. The HD series only supports the name plate rating. Some models of the older A-series had more generous inverter capabilities than the nameplate suggested.
                              I would agree with the support (see my other comments) and rapid growth.

                              I am still confused by the comment on HD series vs A series. The 7600A was documented strangely on paper but is still limited by the 40a fuse. If anything all the HDWaves have much larger DC ratings than their A series counterparts which is very beneficial particularly in heavily shadowed or East/West arrangements. but for the most part the difference in cost from one size to the next is slight and there is very little penalty for going up in size of the inverter with SolarEdge.

                              As for debugging or troublshooting a system it is far simpler online to diagnose problems and if there is no online, the app on a phone can connect to the inverter with a local wifi and get the information and upload it for techsupport through the phones network (as well as display for the users locally).

                              As for no getting full access if your installer (or any installer for that matter) does not give full access create your own installer account and re-set up the inverter online. It will switch to your account and you will have to put in all the information so make sure you have the optimizer layout from the installer or online before re-setting it up.

                              I think there is a market for a company to manage the monitoring etc for not just SolarEdge but all systems and help customers with support.
                              OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Originally posted by ButchDeal View Post
                                There were clearly some roll out issues with the new HDWaves and firmware upgrade procedures with them. I have a tech background and am VERY familiar with computers etc but many installers are not and are not comfortable with even connecting inverters (of any brand) to ethernet, setting up online monitoring (I know it is trivial but still), or upgrading firmware (yes it can be done remotely but only if there connection is good), etc. etc. We dealt with many installers that like other inverters and it comes down to when dealing with them, that the problem was their phobias around the computer side of what they viewed as high tech. When I and my staff did the work for them and explained they just needed to record on a piece of cardboard the optimizer locations, they all of a sudden where great with solarEdge and/or enphase (yes we installed some enphase too

                                Butch that is pretty much a nothing Burger answer, virtually everything I own at my house is connected to the Wi-Fi even my sprinkler system is. how solaredge could be so neglectful in this aspect is really appalling they should be ashamed of themselves. they have been using carrier current technology for quite a while you think that they could have done something to communicate with their users using that at least.

                                the only equipment I see for users is the SE1000 key, and that is limited in usage and functionality.

                                solaredge in my opinion needs to come up to speed and come into the 21st century, Maybe I am expecting too much
                                Those who do, do it!

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